Mat Nor Rejab - the old face of UMNO ?

16.5.2010.

I don't care for the right spelling of his name for what I'm about to say about him. The question is, is he the old face of UMNO ? I know he's an UMNO old face, but that's a different thing altogether.

Saturday, Taib & I had a fixture at KDRSM. I was early and met Mat Nor Rejab, and as is my usual, joked easily with him, since I know him when serving the state. Surprisingly, and most shockingly to me, he took offence and said tartly I can't make those comments since I'm no friend of his. More embarassingly humiliating to me, he added I should realise that if I have any brain !

I'm not one to back away from a good arguement, but because of the complete surprise at the most unexpected response to my ribbing uttered in English in front of Taib's wife and Kaharuddin Kulup, I decided not to let this one break into an ugly scene. But was I boiling inside when I walked away. 

In all my life I've had a few cases of misunderstanding of intentions like that, but less of instances of rudeness of response,  coming from an ex-Deputy Minister of the Malaysian Government. I'm sure if this guy was still in office, he'd be more tactful, knowing the consequences. Hell, I'm not letting him get away with it. 

This morning I was with Ismail Yassin and mentioned the incident to him, expecting to hear him say "just forget about it". He outdid himself. He has no love for the guy, too. Ismail said the reason for his dislike is the response for that idiot's hatred for him, because Ismail recommended Omar "keretapi" to Rais Yatim when Rais asked for a name to stand as Tampin's MP, when in fact Mat Nor wanted the job. 

When the next GE came, Mat Nor was the new Ketua Bahagian, and naturally Omar "keretapi" lost his MPship before even a single full term. Ismail said Mat Nor was a bank officer who followed Mokhtar Hashim around until Mokhtar was influenced to pick him up for Tampin. 

When Mat Nor started bragging among his political friends that he was gunning for the MB's job while Isa was still around, word got to Isa. Isa cleverly put Waad on Mat Nor's trail and that was the end of Mat Nor's pipe dream.

The next time I meet Mat Nor Rejab, I know what to say to him if he wants to greet me or anything of that nature. "Sorry, I'm not your friend." He's old UMNO. I don't think the new UMNO wants him, either.

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